Apparatus for charging cigarette machines with tobacco



July 11, 1939. REPPER 2,166,022

APPARATUS FOR CHARGING CIGARETTE MACHINES WITH TOBACCO Filed Jim 10, 19:56

Patented July 11, 1939 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFiCE Ludwig Repper, Bremen, Germany Application June 10,

1936, Serial No. 84,392

In Germany July 2, 1935 4 Claims.

The charging of cigarette machines with tobacco always involves the problem of making the charging as uniform as possible (so as to produce uniform cigarettes) While, at the same time (and likewise in the interests of quality in the cigarettes produced) the tobacco must be handled as delicately as possible, so as not to destroy the long fibres. Many and various suggestions have been made in connection with these requirements and inter alia, it has been proposed to distribute the tobacco over a number of parallel inclined planes, by means of a reciprocating feed hopper and to remove it from such chute arrangement with the aid of a delivery roller, It has also been proposed to separate the tobacco coming from the loosening apparatus into short fibred and long fibred material with the aid of an oscillating grid, to pass it through a pipe or duct and then to remove it therefrom by pin rollers, so as to recombine the different material, Finally, funnel-shaped shafts arranged to receive tobacco from the spreading roller have also been suggested, the tobacco being forced down in such shafts by separate springpressed rollers.

In all these arrangements the use of the pin rollers, whether it be for the spreading out of the tobacco, or for removing the same, takes no account of the need for affording to it the greatest possible degree of protection, and the tobacco, fed to the hopper in a non-uniform state, is removed therefrom in a corresponding condition, as no means is provided for equalising the different densities of the tobacco inside the hopper.

The present invention solves these difficulties, firstly, by dispensing with pin rollers altogether and so obviating all risk of such rollers damaging the tobacco and, secondly, by making provision, inside a hopper or spout for ensuring uniform density of the tobacco therein, whereby uniform delivery of the tobacco at the point where it leaves the hopper is ensured.

My invention will now be elucidated, both as regards the method and as regards the apparatus, with reference to a concrete example, which is illustrated diagrammatically in the accompanying drawing. It is to be understood, however, that the invention is not limited to the example described and shown.

According to the said drawing, feeding means consisting of continuously moving endless bands II are provided on the machine frame l0. At l2 are shown guards of sheet metal. The previously mixed and loosened tobacco is fed by additional feeding means, diagrammatically indicated by the reference numerals l and 2, directly into the cigarette machine, by way of the hoppers 3, the hitherto known usual spreading roller being purposely omitted. The hoppers 3 are therefore arranged to adjoin directly the devices. which feed the tobacco from the loosening apparatus. Now, in place of the usual spiked rollers, the hoppers 3 are associated with hopper spouts 8, which extend over the entire width of the tobacco spreader and terminate with their bottom openings just above an endless band 4. The walls of these spouts 8 may be parallel or tapered. It is preferable to employ two such hoppers, which can be charged alternately by the corresponding delivery mechanisms so as to obtain uniform feeding, having regard to the various effects of the preceding loosening apparatus, and to re-combine, as uniformly as possible, any previously screened out short-fibred and long-fibred material. In obtaining this alternate action, for the purpose of securing the greatest possible uniformity in production, the number of delivering devices II, I and 2, hoppers 3 and spouts 8 may be increased as desired.

The tobacco passes through the hoppers 3 and thence into the hopper spouts 8 aforesaid. The average width of cross-section of these spouts in a machine having an output of 50 kg. per hour is about 4 cm. In this way the width is so adapted to the tobacco consumption of the machine that the spouts 8 are always adequately filled up to a given level, the particles of tobacco being in contact with both walls and not simply sliding down along the lowermost inclined surfaces only. By means of a positively actuated tapping or shaking device 6 which is provided on the machine frame I0 and is operated by any suitable means (not shown), provision is made for constantly ensuring the tobacco particles to become matted together, both vertically and horizontally throughout the whole of the column in each spout. The result is that the density of the tobacco, particularly in the lower layers in the compacting and equalizing hopper spouts 8, is always the same irrespective of how much tobacco is fed into the hoppers. Thus at the outlet end of each spout 8 (Where, for facilitating removal of the tobacco,

a preferably fluted roller 5, rotating in a direction 9. With the shaking device 6 there cooperates a set screw IS in such a way that the shaking movements which are produced by the shaking device 6 can be varied,

Efach spout 8 may be provided with a trans parent panel as shown at I4, preferably on its upper side, so as to permit the working of the apparatus to be continuously observed.

Furthermore, the uniform density secured by the shaking of the spouts 8, whereby the tobacco falls together and becomes more compact, can be regulated as desired by the adjustment of the angle of inclination of each spout. The endless band 4 which, of course, is caused to travel at a speed accurately adapted to the rest of the ma chine, functions as a conveyor for the carpet of tobacco and fine regulation can also be obtained with the aid of a quick-acting balance or weighing machine located at the end of the rod of tobacco (as disclosed in the specification of the copending application Serial No. 63,464), filed Feb, 11, 1936 the result of the weighing being communicated to a speed governor associated with the drive of the said band 4 and weighing being effected about every five seconds so that the output is automatically regulated.

The novel features of the present method and of the apparatus reside in the substitution for the spiked roller which has hitherto been employed in the tobacco spreader as a distributing roller, of a distributing hopper spout which over its whole width, adjoins at its one end the hopper of the tobacco feeding apparatus while at its other end it has an outlet extending over the whole width of the machine, opposite to and adjacent the endless band l. Uniform density of the tobacco in such a hopper spout is ensured by the latter being shaken so that the tobacco always emerges therefrom in a uniform layer and at the same rate while it is conveyed away by the band. The tobacco is, of course removed from the band as fast as it is supplied thereto by the said distributing spouts. Regarded pure- 1y from an apparatus point of View, the novelty resides in the provision of an appropriate shaking hopper in place of the usual spreading device and in the spike roller or pin roller ordinarily used at this point being dispensed with; as well as in the provision for adjusting the inclination of the spout according to the desired density of the tobacco effected by the shaking.

It is to be observed that if the equalisin-g hopper is overcharged, the level of the surface of e tobacco rises, whereas if the charge is insufiicient, the level falls slightly, but provision is made to ensure that, at the outlet end the delivery of tobacco on to the adjacent endless band shall always be the same. In other words, the level to which the tobacco piles up in the hoppers can vary to a certain extent without affecting the uniformity of the delivery at the outlet.

What I claim is:

1. In an apparatus of the kind described, the combination with tobacco feeding means, a rodchannel, and a conveyor leading to said rodchannel, of a chute-like member adapted to receive the tobacco from said tobacco feeding means, said member being disposed with its open lower end directly above said conveyor and being rearwardly inclined relative thereto, and means for imparting a shaking motion to said chutelike member.

2. The combination as specified in claim 1 and a hopper interposed between said tobacco feeding means and the upper end of said chute-like member, said upper end being shaped like a hopper.

3. The combination as specified in claim 1, and a conveying roll provided at the open lower end of said chute-like member for continually removing therefrom the tobacco onto said conveyor so as to insure uniform density.

4. In an apparatus of the kind described, the combination with a plurality of tobacco feeding means and an endless conveyor, of a series of chute-like members in tobacco receiving relation to said tobacco feeding means and disposed in parallel spaced arrangement above said endless conveyor with their open lower ends directly above the same, said chute-like members being rearwardly inclined relative to said conveyor, and means for imparting a shaking motion to said chute-like members.

LUDWIG REPPER. 

